Friday, February 28, 2014

Could Russia intervene militarily in Crimea to safeguard its strategic interests? Or, to put the question a different way, has Russia already intervened?

Nobody yet knows the identities of the armed men who seized control of Simferopol airport.

But their equipment, their vehicles and their behaviour all signal that this is a trained military unit, not a rag-tag group of pro-Russian loyalists.

"These men look like a formed and organised body of troops. They appear to be disciplined, confident and uniformly dressed and equipped," says Brigadier Ben Barry, a land warfare expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Large numbers of Russian troops were reported landing at a military air base in Crimea Friday, prompting Ukraine to accuse Russia of a military invasion.

At the White House, President Obama said the U.S. government is "deeply concerned" by reports of Russian "military movements" and warned any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty would be "deeply destabilizing."

"There will be costs" for any military intervention, he said, without specifying what those costs might be.

ISIL fighters retreat to the east following ultimatum by rival al-Qaeda faction Nusra to drive them from northern Syria.

Fighters from the breakaway group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have begun withdrawing from parts of northern Syria ahead of a deadline set by a powerful rival al-Qaeda faction.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Friday said the ISIL was retreating east towards its stronghold in the city of Raqa.

The withdrawal comes four days after the al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front issued the ISIL an ultimatum to go before an Islamic court for mediation or face being expelled from Syria and the region altogether.

NEW DELHI — Iran is willing to address international concerns about its atomic activities but will keep its nuclear program “intact”, not close it down, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday.

His remarks signaled that Tehran will not agree to dismantle any of its atomic facilities in talks with six world powers on a final settlement of the decade-old dispute over its nuclear activity.

Those negotiations got under way in Vienna last week, with both sides saying they made a “good start” but conceding that their plan to achieve a long-term deal in the coming months was very ambitious.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano reacts as he attends a news conference during a board of governors meeting at the UN headquarters in Vienna November 29, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Herwig Prammer

No Iran Report With New Bomb Research Information: IAEA -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had not prepared a report with new information about suspected atomic bomb research in Iran, after Israel urged it to go public with all information it has regarding such suspicions.

Israel's statement followed a Reuters report on Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had planned a major report on Iran last year that might have revealed more of its alleged activities that could be used for designing a nuclear warhead, but had held off as Tehran's relations with the outside world thawed.

Sources familiar with the matter said the IAEA apparently had not gone ahead with writing the report and that there was no way of knowing what extra information might have been included in such a document, although one source said it could have added to worries about Iran.

My Comment: The reset is over .... and events in Ukraine (with strong U.S. backing) is the final nail in the coffin. And while I do not expect a return to the days of the Cold War (the chance of that is zero) .... both sides will pursue their own interests and will deal with each other on a case by case basis.

The world should brace itself for a Putin strike to prevent Ukraine from turning towards the West.

For those in doubt, suffice to recall President Putin’s statement in 2006 that the collapse of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the twentieth century.

Ukraine firmly anchored in the Western system, on its way towards membership of the EU in due course, or even worse, a member of NATO—these are outcomes he will never tolerate. It would be the final straw in dismantling Russian attempts to extend its influence over the ‘near abroad’—those parts of Central and Eastern Europe that escaped domination by Russia in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Putin has several times invoked Russia’s right to influence, labelling the ‘near abroad’ strategically vital for Russia. Giving up, especially under such circumstances as these, would be tantamount to a humiliating defeat more than wiping out his diplomatic triumphs (Syria, for example) last year. And the domestic strongman image Putin has carefully cultivated cannot be reconciled with being outmaneuvered by the West and sidelined by a large part of the Ukrainian population.

* Blockading airport in Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea
* Armed men also took over other main Crimean airport - no violence reported
* Ukraine ask U.N. Security Council to call a session to discuss the crisis
* Country's new interior minister branded the act an 'armed invasion'
* Russia granted shelter to Ukraine's fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych
* Yanukovych has a news conference scheduled today
* Ukraine will ask Russia to extradite Yanukovich if his location is confirmed
* Ukraine Central Bank is limiting foreign currency withdrawals
* Russian military helicopters have flown to Ukraine according to Interfax

Ukraine's ex-President Yanukovych has made his first public appearance since being ousted, telling a news conference that he was going to fight for his country's future.

His speech came as Russian military continue to block a Ukrainian military airport in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea, an act Ukraine's new interior minister has branded an 'armed invasion.'

Dozens of armed men also took over the other main Crimean airport, Simferopol and Ukraine's State Border Guard Service says about 30 Russian marines have taken positions outside its Coast Guard base in the Sevastopol.

Live video of a news conference scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. ET featuring the first public appearance in a week by Ukraine’s ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych, broadcast by the Russian government’s RT news network. A simultaneous translation into English is available on the network’s website.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Viktor F. Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, appeared Friday at a news conference in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, his first public appearance since he disappeared in Kiev a week ago. Before Friday he had been heard from only in a video from his political stronghold in eastern Ukraine and in a written statement in which he declared that he remained the lawfully elected leader of Ukraine.

“Nobody deposed me,” he said in an opening statement Friday, speaking in Russian. “I had to leave Ukraine because there was a direct and imminent threat to my life.” He said Ukraine had been taken over by nationalist thugs, with the assistance of the West, and called for a restoration of the government he once led.

My Comment: Ukraine’s Ousted President Viktor Yanukovych may act defiant but from my perspective he looks defeated in this news conference .... I guess he knows that his options are limited. He probably also knows that his (and his allies) embezzlement of Ukrainian state funds has discredited him in Ukraine and in much of the world. But Russia is still supporting and protecting him, as evidence by this report ....Yanukovych Escorted to Russia By Fighter Jets – Report -- RIA Novosti

As to the question .... can he make a comeback? Hmmmm .... I would put his odds at zero, and after this conference we will probably not hear from him again.

Ukranian minister accuses Russia of an armed takeover of Crimea amid reports that airports have been seized

Ukraine accused Russia of staging an "armed invasion" of Crimea on Friday as the ex-Soviet state's ousted leader prepared to emerge defiant from five days of hiding after winning protection from Moscow.

Unidentified armed men were patrolling outside of Crimea's main airport early Friday while gunmen were also reported to have seized another airfield on the southwest of the peninsula where ethnic Russians are a majority and where pro-Moscow sentiment runs high.

MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti) – A senior Russian defense official said Thursday that the country’s Black Sea Fleet poses no threat to Ukraine and its activities are in compliance with standing agreements between the two countries.

“Currently all units are engaged in their daily routines, including combat training. These actions do not represent a threat,” Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters.

He added that the placement, strength and quantity of weapons and military personnel were in strict compliance with existing bilateral agreements.

The Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, taken from an airplane in January 2008. Wikipedia

Here’s What the Pentagon Will Cut If Sequestration Happens Again in 2016 -- Stephanie Gaskell, Defense One

When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel outlined the president’s Pentagon budget request for next year, he also rolled the dice with a move that tries to turn the tables on Congress by using lawmakers’ threat of another sequestration as a bargaining chip. The Obama administration, Hagel said, could avoid cutting deep into several weapons systems and other defense line items in fiscal year 2015. But if sequestration happens again in fiscal year 2016, Hagel said he will be forced to cut even more from the Pentagon budget – cuts he says will leave the military at greater risk.

Hagel’s plan for fiscal year 2015 complies with congressional budget caps that limit the Defense Department budget to $496 billion, he said. President Barack Obama wants to add another $26 billion, from a special new $58 billion fund that would be paid for with “a balanced package of spending and tax reforms.”

The Film That Makes Private Ryan Look Like Kids' Stuff: The Russians Are Coming - With A Blood-Drenched Film About The Most Savage Battle In History. But, Says MAX HASTINGS, The Reality Was Even More Barbaric -- Daily Mail

A handful of soldiers, beleaguered by a Nazi host in a wrecked city apartment building, prepare to sell their lives dearly on celluloid.

Does the scenario sound familiar? It should. For 70 years, the British and Americans have been making heroic movies about World War II, some of which are etched in our culture.

But now for something different: Russian film-makers have got in on the act.

They have created a 3D epic set for the film Stalingrad, about the most famous battle in their history, and the movie has become one of the biggest domestic box office hits of all time. Now, British audiences can see for themselves this amazingly noisy, bloody, cliche-laden, rubble-making version of the war.

A new report on the nuclear crisis that started to unfold in Fukushima, Japan almost three years ago suggests that American troops who assisted with disaster relief efforts were exposed to unheard of radiation levels while on assignment.

Kyle Cleveland, a sociology professor at Temple University Japan, makes a case for that argument in an academic paper published in the Asia-Pacific Journal this week titled Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Politics of Uncertainty.

According to Cleveland, transcripts from a March 2011 conference call obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that United States servicemen on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier experienced radiation levels 30-times above normal during relief operations that week.

My Comment: For the 5,000 personnel who were serving aboard the USS Ronald Reagan during the height of the Fukushima crisis .... this is becoming a nightmare scenario for everyone. For those who are sick, for those who think they are sick, and for those who are fearful that they will get sick.

Better relations between Tehran and the West could put a major dent in the global opium trade.

Efforts between world powers and Iran to reach a comprehensive deal on the country’s nuclear program may now be back in the news, but a related issue with global ramifications is receiving far less attention: Iran’s war on drugs.

Earlier this month, Iranian media reported that law-enforcement officers had captured more than a ton of illicit drugs on the eastern border, prompting Iran's anti-narcotics police chief to boast of his success in reproducing “breeds of drug-sniffing dogs” despite the “(anti-Iran) sanctions” arrayed against the country. In a more dramatic incident in November, Iranian security personnel killed eight smugglers with RPGs, grenades, and over a ton of narcotics in the country’s often-volatile southeastern region.

A U.S. Special Forces soldier searches a tree line for insurgent activity in Afghanistan on Oct. 30, 2010. U.S. Department of Defense

The Secret Battles Between US Forces and Chechen Terrorists -- ABC News

For the last 12 years, U.S. Special Operations forces have repeatedly engaged in fierce combat in Afghanistan against ruthless Taliban allies from Chechnya, who have the same pedigree as their terrorist brethren threatening to disrupt the Winter Olympics in Russia, current and former commandos tell ABC News.

"I'd say Chechens were a fair percentage of the overall enemy population early in Operation Enduring Freedom," recalled an active-duty senior Special Operations officer, referring to the Pentagon's name for the Afghan war, in which he was among the first ground operatives.

Since the U.S. war in Afghanistan began after September 11, elite U.S. troops' border battles with Chechen jihadis based in Pakistan's tribal safe havens have mostly stayed hidden in the shadows of a clandestine conflict. Special Operations missions are classified secret by default and rarely publicized.

My Comment: Russian forces have been engaged in warfare with Chechen rebels for years .... and they have also experienced (on many occasions) situations where the Chechen militants always preferred to die rather than surrender. I am surprised that there are still some who are alive on the Afghan-Pak border.

Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft taxi into position for an inspection before a training mission during Red Flag 14-1 on Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Jan. 29, 2014. The pilots are assigned to the 391st Fighter Squadron. U.S. Air Force photo by Lorenz Crespo

The Agence France-Presse recently tweeted a couple of photos of what can only be described as excruciating displays of strength and focus by Belarus Interior Ministry special forces.

Belarus, sometimes referred to as the last dictatorship of Europe, has firmly resisted attempts to modernize from the Soviet period. Instead, the country remains fiercely militaristic, hearkening back to the days of Stalin. It is in Moscow's sphere of influence and shares a border with Ukraine.

Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, came under pressure on Thursday as the city of Rome verged towards bankruptcy after parliament threw out a bill that would have injected fresh funding.

Ignazio Marino, Rome mayor, said city services like public transport would come to a halt and that he would not be a "Nero" - the Roman emperor who, legend has it, strummed his lyre as the city burnt to the ground.

Marino said that Renzi, a centre-left leader and former mayor of Florence who was only confirmed by parliament this week, had promised to adopt urgent measures to help the Italian capital at a cabinet meeting on Friday.

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.